Re: [boost] [xint] Third release is ready, requesting preliminary review

Subject: Re: [boost] [xint] Third release is ready, requesting preliminary review
From: Scott McMurray (me22.ca+boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-03 22:02:18

On 3 May 2010 21:43, Chad Nelson <chad.thecomfychair_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> On 05/03/2010 09:22 PM, Scott McMurray wrote:
>>
>> Does "your average developer" even write templates that use the extra
>> power than templates offer over generics?
>>
>
> Not sure what you mean, since in C++ "generics" means templates to me.
> And I don't know how I stack up to the average developer, but I've been
> writing template code for years and never knew about that.
>

To me, "generics" are like those offered in Java, C#, or SML.

The most important difference is that you can specialize templates,
and from that you get Turing-completeness.

>
> I figured that compiler writers probably knew more about it than I did,
> and followed their example.
>

They may have legacy issues from way back when their compiler didn't
support partial template specialization.